Jupiterimages/Thinkstock(NEW YORK) -- A total of 96,000 jobs were added in August, and the unemployment rate edged down to 8.1 percent, according to the Labor Department's report released Friday.

Since the beginning of 2012, the unemployment rate has stayed in the narrow range between 8.1 and 8.3 percent, and it still possible that the unemployment rate could fall below eight percent (which would take it to its lowest level since President Obama took office).

The total number of unemployed people -- 12.5 million, says the Bureau of Labor Statistics -- changed only very little in August. The number of long-term unemployed (those jobless for 27 weeks or more) was five million, accounting for 40 percent of the total number of unemployed people.

Here's a look at the numbers over the past two years.

IN THE PAST TWO YEARS:

Since September 2010, the economy has been steadily adding jobs.

TOTAL PRIVATE JOBS CREATED:

For 30 straight months, there has been private sector job growth, President likes to point out, with 4.6 million private sector jobs created in that time frame.

But for now, 2012 is faring worse than 2011 when it comes to employment. Since the beginning of 2012, employment growth has averaged 139,000 jobs per month, compared with an average monthly gain of 153,000 in 2011.

Creatas Images/Thinkstock(NEW YORK) -- A new report released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics examines how people who lost their jobs between January 2009 and December 2011 are doing.

The report shows that 56 percent of those who became unemployed found jobs by the beginning of 2012, indicating that a large percentage of the people who lost jobs are still struggling to find employment. Over half of those who found work accepted lower pay, and one-third accepted decreased pay of at least 20 percent. Almost one in five of those who lost work had manufacturing jobs.

By January 2012, 61 percent of men had found jobs, as opposed to 50 percent of women. Asians had the highest re-employment rates in January 2012 at 60 percent, followed by whites at 57 percent, Hispanics at 55 percent and blacks at 46 percent.

The data is based on 6.1 million people who had worked at their jobs for three or more years before being displaced. According to the report, an additional 6.7 million people who held jobs for less than three years were also displaced.

Christopher Robbins/Thinkstock(PRINCETON, N.J.) – The “Economic Confidence Index" fell to -24 for the week ending June 17, the third straight week of decline, according to the Gallup Polls.

"With the U.S. economy fragile and concerns over European debt continuing to mount, economic confidence will be an important number to watch in the coming weeks and months leading up to the presidential election," Gallup suggests.

"The continued negative confidence among independents is particularly relevant to President Obama's re-election hopes. Given that independents are the swing U.S. political group, confidence among them may need to move closer to positive territory to boost their willingness to back Obama in the election."

Recently, “there were 3.4 million job openings on the last business day of April, down from 3.7 million in March,” reports the Bureau of Labor Statistics.